In thirteen days, I will be lining up in Union Square for a 10:15pm screening of Rogue One. Tickets are booked, it’s a standard theater with no fancy booked seats or technology, just like when I got to see the Prequels in theaters for the first time. This is becoming my ritual for new movies: I will then follow up with more calculated screenings in IMAX and Dolby Atmos. That said...

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN / MY BODY IS READY FOR THIS MOVIE.

Oh, right, report. Let’s do that first.

December DC Event

As Pravus announced, the Dark Council will be running a month long event for the month of December similar to what was run last year for the launch of Episode VII.

• Check out the events here: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Celebration

I will be co-running two competitions, one Fiction and one Run-On, which I will talk about next.

There are some really cool events here, with a completely new one from Evant about writing product reviews for Possessions items. I’m personally going to be entering that one, and encourage you guys to do so as well. If anyone has Xbox One, I’ll also be hitting up Star Wars: Battlefront for Drac’s comps, and I’m happy to jump into a game with you. Just hit me up.

Fiction

Mav and I decided to go with a “What If” prompt, and encourage everyone to place their character into a historical scene in Star Wars. As you will see in the competition details, we will be using the new Fiction rubric, but giving leniency in the realism department in terms of how or why the character happens to be involved in a particular canon event.

Subscribe here.

Run-On: The Rising Tides

With the fiction prompt focusing on levity, the monthly focus for the Inquisitorius Fiction Society is our first DB-wide Run-On since last year. My hope is that Run-Ons will become more frequent at the DB-level and run more frequently outside of single units. For this Run-On, I wanted to mirror Sarin’s from last year and use the “Small Team” format and promote the option to team up with anyone in the DB, not just your clanmates! You can find the details here on the competition page.

For convenience (and mostly because I like testing out new technology like Google’s new free-website-builder), I created a Run-On Launch Page that should cover any questions you might have about the competition. Included on the site is a Star Wars-style Scrolling Text introduction that serves as a fictional recap of Brotherhood events so far this past year. It is also listed in plaintext form for people who hate videos, or something, followed by the prompt.

I also created a quick-reference sheet for new or returning members that want to catch up with current events in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. I’ve titled it: Brotherhood Organizations & Persons of Interest

I’d recommend bookmarking the site or even just the links, as it should provide a valuable resource to writing and telling your stories for this Run-On. I’d also recommend keeping to smaller teams if you’re new to Run-Ons. Another thing to keep in mind:

“The Winning entry and other story beats from completed Run-Ons may be considered for inclusion in DB Plotline Canon.”

If you have any questions, let me know. As a random easter egg to anyone knows me, if you realize where I got the names for the missing persons, feel free to let me know that you got the reference :P. If you’re having problems finding teammates, contact your Summit, or I can also try and reach out and see what I can do.

Update / Questions Answered

1. Star Wars has always represented two warring sides: Sith vs Jedi, Empire vs Rebellion, Separatist vs Republic, and even First Order vs Resistance. Throughout all of these conflicts, there has always been the "Third Party". Think Han Solo at the beginning of Episode 4, or Hando Onaka in the Clone Wars. There is always a place for characters that are loyal to themselves/friends/groups over the two major factions.

2. With that said: The two objectives are there to provide a sense of scale for writers as the two main diametrically opposed sides in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. I don't expect everyone to pick a side, just to tell their own unique story.

3. Teams can have different objectives internally or have disparate views. This, to me, sounds like good drama/material for an engaging story. It is entirely up to your team and the story you decide to tell. This means that yes, half the team can be pro Inq and the other half is pro Lotus.

Run-On Rubric

This is now a thing. Why? As someone who has been competing in every major Run-On since 2010, I always felt that there was a lack of feedback when winning or losing. After talking with others, and looking at how positive feedback has been with the ACC and Fiction Rubrics, it seemed like the next logical step to implement.

You can see the updated Run-On rubric here.

Competition organizers are not required to use the rubric, but the Voice strongly recommends it as it will mirror how every major Brotherhood competition will function going forward. Like any of our rubrics, additional modifiers can be added to the rubric for a specific event: these details just need to be clearly and transparently outlined for the competitors in the competition details.

I’m continuing work on rewriting the Run-On Course to reflect the new rubric and other changes. Keep an eye out for that, and let me know if you have any questions.

Dark Council - Fictional Roles

There have been a lot of questions over the past few years in regards to what exactly the Dark Council does in-character/universe. While we have clear definitions and understandings of what they do out of character, each respective Counselor's role has been changed or revised between leadership regimes. With an initial draft done by Evant, I sat down with Sarin and worked to figure out where we both felt each Councilor fit. You can view the full document with table of contents for The Dark Council here. I will be updating each respective Dark Councilor wikipedia page with this information as well.

The biggest change you will notice is that the MAA is no longer in charge of anything relating to the Fleets. The FIST is in command of the Dark Council’s military, both naval, ground, and armored forces.

On Titles and Positions In Fiction

Quick side note. A discussion came up in regards to Brotherhood ranks/titles being used to identify members in-character or in the context of writing. If you do not like the rank title of “Seer”, you do not have to have your character identify as such. You could call them by a different pronoun relative to the character, like by their Discipline or the profession they are known for, or simply “the Equite”. It is entirely up to you, the writer of the character, to determine how that character handles ranks and titles.

For tangible positions or staff roles acknowledged through the website, more than a few of them function as OOC (out of character) roles. If you are an ACC Judge, you do not have to call your character a Judge. You were hired for your abilities, not your character's skill with lightsabers. If you wanted, however, you could work in that your character works at the Combat Center as a “mentor” or “trainer”. It really is up to you, though, if you want to incorporate your OOC job into your character.

New Species: Ryn

Thanks to James Luceno (who originally created the Ryn in his EU novels), Ryn have been made canon again. Two of the unique species made appearances in his latest new canon book: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel.

Following the Species Approval Policy guidelines, two members submitted a query requesting that we remove the Grandfathered tag from Ryn. I have gone ahead and done the thing. Thank you Kordath and Zujenia for following the guidelines, and hopefully this sets a positive example for how we greenlight or un-grandfather Species.

Expanded reasoning for removing the tag from the Ryn:

• Two members currently and actively are making use of the Species.
• That’s two Player Characters, not NPCs.
• They are already well balanced and in the system.
• The Species offers something unique and different from the other available Species while not introducing anything drastic or unbalancing (glaring at you, Shi’ido).

For a reminder on the Species Approval Policy and Grandfathering click here.

Magistrate Position Open

I’m still accepting applications for Magistrate. To see what I’m looking for, check out my last Voice Update.. I will be taking applications up until Sunday, 12/4/16.

Anthology Part 3: Seven Strands

The final chapter of the Anthology series will be published this weekend. Each unit has been super awesome with getting me their stories and excerpts in a timely manner. I’m now just working on a few things with finishing it up.

Once the Anthology series closes, the next thing I will be working on is a major fiction update — that Sarin has called “Fiction 3.0” in past reports — which will build on “New Order” and “Treason” and show the consequences of evoking Pravus’ warth (muahaha, ominous foreshadowing).

Final Thoughts

So, there was some pretty involved talk about reports, documentation, and how members “read” policy and news changes in the DB. I’ve been around the DB for a while as both a leader and active participant. I’ve run into a lot of problems as a member that I’ve looked to correct as a leader, and vice versa. One of my biggest issues coming up in the DB was transparency and clear documentation. To that end, I’ve made it my mission to always provide transparent explanations to why anything gets done or changed. If you feel that this is not the case, please tell me immediately so I can see how I can go about correcting it. If we enforce or act on something, it will be documented for you guys to see. Period.

The Dark Council, Society Leaders, and any leader in this club, really, ultimately serve the members. That does not mean that the members should take that for granted. If a leader goes through the trouble to write a report: read it. I personally write my reports with the main focus of answering questions that come up. If after reading, you still have a question? Ask away. That’s what we’re here for.

This report clocks in under 2,000 words. I’d love to hear feedback in the comments or on the side if you felt that the report was too long, too short, not detailed enough, or just your general thoughts! I like hearing feedback, and do my best to learn and grow with the membership.

As usual, if you have any questions, let me know at [Log in to view e-mail addresses].